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- Brandon Southern is a senior leader at Amazon and former head of analytics at eBay and GameStop.
- He writes that you should be careful when considering relocating for a job.
- The company you're relocating for may not appreciate the sacrifice you made, especially during layoffs.
If you're considering relocating for a job, you might want to think twice.
With company in-office work mandates on the rise, many current employees are being asked to relocate to different cities to maintain employment. As a senior leader at Amazon, I don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing because working in the office can increase your career growth potential.
For new hires, relocating to a new city may be a welcomed opportunity for higher income, a bigger title, or getting off the unemployment line. But as with most opportunities, there's a trade-off — you're making a major life change in hopes of a better career and income.
The problem is the company doesn't care about what you sacrificed along the way, and you may come to regret your decision if you're not careful.
Relocating is a major decision
When you relocate for a job, you're choosing to pack up your belongings and say goodbye to friends and family. You may also be selling your home, asking your partner to change their life or career, and asking your children to say goodbye to their friends.
In Amazon terms, this decision is largely viewed as a one-way-door decision; a decision where you can't easily hit the undo button with your actions. If things don't work with your job or your life in the new city, you can't simply move back into your old home nor can you ask for your old job back.
Relocating is a risk
What the company cares about is their bottom line, not what you personally risk when contributing to their bottom line.
Sure, many employers will try to create a positive and healthy work environment, and most will try to avoid creating a negative situation for you and your life. But when tough decisions need to be made, the company's bottom line will likely be more important than your feelings, well-being, or how you will be impacted by their decisions. Meaning, when a company needs to make budget cuts and conduct layoffs, your sacrifice to drastically change your life for the company a few months ago likely won't be a consideration.
A few years ago, I witnessed this exact situation
I was working with a very intelligent vice president, and he was living and working about 2,000 miles away from the corporate office. While he was authorized to work remotely, he found himself traveling to the corporate office every other week to solve issues that couldn't be solved remotely. After three months of exhausting work and travel, he decided that it would be best to pack up his life and relocate near the corporate office.
Unfortunately, within a few months of moving, the company went through a major reorganization, and he found himself out of a job.
Almost overnight, he found himself living in a city that he wouldn't have moved to had it not been for this job. He couldn't get his old house back and he was out of a job, living in a city that had fewer high-paying tech jobs than he was accustomed to. While he received a severance package, it could never undo the decisions that he made.
Had he not moved, he would still have been part of the layoff, but at least he would have his original home and lifestyle without the stress that came along with uprooting his life.
For many people who find themselves as casualties of corporate layoffs, the outcomes can be much worse
This is why it is so important to consider the risks before making a major life decision such as relocating for a job. In an instant, everything can change without you having any indication that your job could be at risk.
Before agreeing to relocate for your current job or accepting a job that requires relocation, you need to ask yourself how you'll feel if things don't work out. If something goes wrong with your job, will you be comfortable living in the new city working for a different company? Would you feel okay moving to a new location again if your job requires it? It's up to you to decide.
The trouble is, if you only look at the potential negative outcomes, you might also be restricting your potential growth. But nobody has a crystal ball.
This is why I think back to Amazon's concept of a one-way and two-way door decision. If you think that your decision won't be too painful to undo if something goes wrong then it might be worth the risk. But if moving away means missing out on time with family and friends, or something that you can never get back, relocation might not be worth the risk, regardless of the opportunity. From there, trust your instincts and commit to whatever decision is best for you.
But without careful consideration or considering potential layoffs, you could find yourself living with significant regret.
Brandon Southern is the former head of analytics at eBay, Amazon, and GameStop. This content is solely the opinions of Brandon Southern and may not reflect the opinion of any organization that he has been affiliated with. Southern does not speak on behalf of the organizations that he has worked with.